We should not want a revival of experience alone without true reformation. And so the term revival is not adequate for our day unless we add the qualifiers “reformational” or “word-driven.” It is not wrong to desire revival if we mean a revival that is a resurgence of correct believing along with the enlivening of our experience with God which comes out of (not apart from) that sound doctrine.
Reformation or Revival? Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Reformation is that word we use to speak to the recovery of the correct doctrines and their vigorous application to all of life.
Reformation or Revival?, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Experience-driven revival is more like a flash flood than a mighty river. Heightened experience certainly leaves its mark, some of which may be good wherever it meets orthodoxy, but a reformational revival is a life-giving river which has continuing positive effects. When reformation takes place, the conviction is not just over our behavioral sinfulness but over wrong doctrine.
Reformation or Revival?, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
Revival describes a renewal of spiritual life, while reformation describes a renewal of the forms and structures of society and culture. It is not possible to have true reformation without first having true revival. The renewal of spiritual life under the power of the Holy Spirit is a necessary condition for reformation but not a sufficient condition for it. Therefore, though it is not possible to have reformation without revival, it is possible to have revival without reformation.
The Spirit of Revival by Archie Parrish, Introduction, Copyright 2000, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 17.
